Early tomorrow morning I'm on the 6am flight out of Sydney for Gatwick in the UK.... Gert Boll my good Velocette friend from Germany is meeting my inward flight after driving from Germany and together we've planned a week of special visits to Velocette people, libraries etc on another Velocette history/archival sortie...A little of this further down the post.... But the major item of interest for the Velobanjogent is the Bonhams auction on the Sunday 18th October 2015 at the Stafford County Showgrounds....During last year a friend of mine, another amateur historian, but 1920's motorcycle oriented and in particular Brough Superior became ill with pancreatic cancer and passed away in November 2014.His life's work of a collection of Brough items remained unfinished.....I was never sure what he had as most had been stored in boxes for many years and he with his wife had lived in the UK and various spots in Australia before returning to Sydney a few years back.My long time friend John Herrick and I assisted his widow in the sorting of "the stuff"... We were surprised to find two SS100 Alpine Grand Sports and a 680 OHV "swing arm" form of Brough and neatly made boxes, seven in all, with "V" twin engines in them.... three for the bikes and the others, a 1000cc Swiss MAG/Motosacoche and three 1000cc JAPs...Additional wheels, Sturmey Archer gearboxes, "V" twin magnetos, a spare Brough Castle set of front forks, four sets of 1930's Norton girder forks pretty complete...the list went on...Sadly for us the dismantling and careful storage meant a great pile of parts to sort through, but we did so over several months.Soon after the enormity of this "cache" became obvious we realised it needed specialist auctioning and an email was sent to Bonhams in London...their almost standard reply was they felt sure they could help...have you any photos....?We found some of the bikes partially assembled which peaked their interest and as we sorted and I sent more pics, Ben Walker their head of the motorcycle division flew out to Sydney for two days to view the lot...He was surprised even if he didn't jump cartwheels, but commented that in 20 years of auctioning he'd never seen the like of this.Eventually the stuff was packed, with the help of Merryn Schriver, head of the Bonhams Sydney office- which basically was Fine Arts- although her Dad and I knew each other, he was into Vincents... Henry from the Sydney office joined John in the packing and in March the lot, some near 2 tonnes, was air freighted to London for further sorting and identification.Bonhams have over the last seven months expertly presented it to the motorcycling public via adverts, press releases and articles in periodicals...A great pat on the back to Ben Walker, James Stensel and Andrew Barrett from Bonhams London office....Interestingly Andy is the grandson of the well known Velocette dealer, Ralph Seymour of Thame, Oxon...now sadly deceased...so we sort of "knew" each other.... Looking forward to seeing you all again very shortly.....The online catalog is....

http://www.bonhams.com/auctions/22727/?department=MOT-CYC

The lots we are involved with are 200 to 213....

As well my friend The Vintagent has a post on the forthcoming auction also....

Five of the seven engine storage boxes...they were carefully stored this way for many years....

For red frame 1927,KTOR-1 68248 engine SS100 AGS

MAG engine in cases..... 2C9A 64335

Castle forks for the SS100 Broughs...

Frame showing both sides ...SS100 Alpine Grand Sports....

Two of the four Norton front forks.....

One of the Brough petrol tanks showing two views...

Part of the 680 Brough frame and some dampers....

Some of the Sturmey Archer gearbox cases...all the internals were carefully oiled and packed away...

Some of the magnetos....

During some of the sorting in Sydney....

Years ago in northern NSW, one of the Broughs loosley assembled...

During his "lightning" 2 day visit...Bonham's Ben Walker with John set out some parts of a bike for an impromptu photo session....

At Dijon in France, Bonhams had a stand and featured one of the Alpine Grand Sports, again loosely assembled.... the photo appeared in the French magazine La Vie de a Moto....

Looks to be an exciting week coming up for the Velobanjogent....

Oh...I mentioned there is some Velocette stuff for us to view and research....."Spring heeled Jack" was an attempt by Velocette to introduce a rear sprung cantilever rear end, built by Bentley and Draper in May 1928...It was unsuccesful at the time, not the least because the triangulated "swing arm" grounded on corners badly....

An illustration from the motorcycle press of the time....

Restored as it is today....One of the interesting Velocettes we will see "close up and personal"... So thats it for now and some interesting posts coming up in the future from The Velobanjogent......

Acknowledgement of items used in this Blog from my archive...

I often feature items from older Motorcycle magazines, including photographs and other drawings, cartoons etc in my Blog. Where possible I acknowledge their source. These items are often from "MotorCycle" and "MotorCycling", and the current copyright holders are Mortons Motor Cycle Media. I thank them for their use.

Where other sources are used such as Fox Photos, Keystone Press and other now defunct press agencies from the UK and elsewhere I attempt to acknowledge their source.

You are free to use any item from my Blog, but PLEASE give credit to the source.

DQ on his Velo Special

Velo Thruxton at speed

About Me

I've motorcycled since the early 1960s...both in Australia, the USA,NZ and UK to where my long suffering wife and I rode a 1972 BMW R50/5 motorcycle via the overland route through Asia in 1974. Careers in Animal Physiology and Automotive Instruments and now finally semi retired into music...as a banjoist in Trad./Dixieland Jazz bands.
Life for me is very interesting......